I just found out that the upload from excel (xls) to a collection doesn't work with 5.1 any more. We upgraded an existing 5.0 to 5.1 and this is now bugging us. The setting is normally done in the ords by adding the four lines to support uploading excel:

<entry key="apex.excel2collection">true</entry>

<entry key="apex.excel2collection.onecollection">true</entry>

<entry key="apex.excel2collection.name">EXCEL_COLLECTION</entry>

<entry key="apex.excel2collection.useSheetName">true</entry>

However in APEX 5.1 the simple page with a button to start the upload and the file browse item produces an error.

I tested this on multiple environments where there was an upgrade from 5.0 to 5.1 and it is the same thing.

The Excel to Collection functionality no longer works when using ORDS and APEX 5.1. In APEX 5.1 we've changed the page submission to use JSON, which does not work with the current Excel to Collection implementation in ORDS. Unfortunately we don't have an alternative or work around available at this time.

Some time ago (i believe ords 2.x and apex 4.2) xls2collection was broken. After that was fixed to finally work with xls and xlsx (apex 5.0.2 and listener 2.0.9) and worked (not as efficient as in listener 1.x but it was complete out of the box solution)

Now in 2017 (apex 5.1 and ords 3.x) we go back to 2011 and need to use workaround to keep function live.

I'm always impressed how apex/ords new versions broke old functions without a word.